She stares at the lineup of men
who all look like Jesus
and finally points out the one
who most resembles Him,
swarthy and bearded,
a lot like Cat Stevens,
so angelic she wants to kiss Him
like a lover on the lips.
He is the only one who seems
at ease. Should He wink at her,
it would mean more than conspiracy;
it would mean that she’d gone beyond
the call of duty to finger Jesus
for his crimes and to love Him
just the same.
Faith
JOHN HOPPENTHALER’s books of poetry are Night Wing Over Metropolitan Area, Domestic Garden, Anticipate the Coming Reservoir, and Lives of Water, all with Carnegie Mellon UP. With Kazim, Ali, he has co-edited a volume of essays on the poetry of Jean Valentine, This-World Company (U of Michigan P). Professor of CW and Literature at East Carolina University, he serves on the Advisory Board for Backbone Press, specializing in the publication and promotion of marginalized voices. His poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, New York Magazine, Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, The Literary Review, Blackbird, Southern Humanities Review, and many other journals, anthologies, and textbooks.